Hebrews 13 , Where Do You Belong? , 希伯来书 13章, 你的归属在那里?

I'll be looking at the entire chapter of Hebrews 13, starting at verse 1. Hear the word of the

Lord. Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Remember those who are in prison, as though imprisoned with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have.

For he has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you. So we can confidently say, the

Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.

Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.

Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them.

We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.

So Jesus also suffered outside the gate, in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp, and bear the reproach he endured.

For here, we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

Through him, then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

Do not neglect to do good, and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.

Let them do this with joy, and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.

I urge you the more earnestly to do this, in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.

Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good, that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.

Amen. I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.

You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you, if he comes soon.

Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy, send you greetings.

Grace be with all of you. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word.

People long to belong, to be a part of something, connected somehow to other people.

Belonging isn't just a want, a luxury. It's a need to feel that we are a part of one another, our friends, our family, our culture, our country, the world.

And so we have days like Mother's Day to make people, today, mothers, to feel like they are an honored part of society.

Well, today is Mother's Day. Fathers can sit back quietly, because in six weeks it will be their day. And then there is

World Youth Day, brought to us, by the way, by the same people who brought us all the Saints Days in the past.

There's a Sibling Day on April 10th. And, of course, we don't want to leave out the only children.

So there's an Only Children Day on April 12th, just two days later. Bake a cupcake for that.

Just one. And so no matter who you are, these days, there's a day for you.

You can feel included. You're a part. People long to belong. Psychologists say satisfying this need requires two things.

First, frequent positive interaction with the same people, our mothers, our fathers, our siblings, church members.

And two, that these relationships be long -term. They be stable and caring.

And so we have Mother's Day as an opportunity to demonstrate our caring for this long -term relationship.

For most, the family is the first relationship that provides for that need.

Now, in traditional Chinese culture, this is so important that the family becomes religious.

And I don't mean all the members go to church. I mean the family itself is a religion.

It's the religion, really. With people actually worshipping their ancestors and believing that it is to the family that they will eternally belong.

In American culture, we so much hold up the romantic relationship as the relationship.

You know, that's where you get all your belonging. And many assume, contrary to what

Jesus said, Jesus addressed this directly, but it's contrary to that, they assume that their relationship will last eternally.

Until the stars grow cold. Or until they break up, whichever comes first. We put so much weight on these relationships, often making them idols, because we long to belong.

The psychologists have found that people who lack belongingness suffer higher levels of mental and physical illness, and are more prone to various problems, ranging from traffic accidents, they get into more car accidents, criminality, they're more likely to be criminals, to suicide.

You know, no one cares, so might as well end it all, is what they think. One young woman wrote, we don't have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did,

I could say that's what I want in life. Actually, we do have such a word.

It's belongingness, in English. It's such an urge, people will stay in abusive relationships, to retain a sense of belonging.

I mean, you know, the tragic thing is, at least for a while, many people are willing to get repeatedly beat up, rather than not belong.

Cults recognize this need, and they will use the promise of it to draw people in.

Come be a part of us, you'll belong. And churches, too, should have a sense of belonging, that, you know, all our talk, you know, church family,

God being our Heavenly Father, Jesus our Elder Brother, the Holy Spirit giving us the tithe it binds, the church being filled with spiritual siblings, brothers, sisters, that that's, you know, that that's not just so much sweet nothings, to use a nice term.

It's not just empty, happy talk for what is really, come on, come on, what is the church, really?

For many people, assume. It's a place for Sunday morning religious entertainment, isn't it? Come on, give me a break. Or if they're reformed, it's a place for Sunday morning religious lectures.

And there are some church people, there are, the reality is there are some, probably a good many church people, who don't want other church people getting too close.

And so they will seek out large, anonymous churches so they can indeed come and go and not really be known, but pat themselves on the back that they went to, quote, church.

No one knows it, but they did. Maybe they don't want other people sitting behind the curtain of their life. But that's really, in the long term, is as unsatisfying as a meal of unbuttered, unsalted popcorn.

People long to belong. And that's how

Hebrews ends, with belongingness, of Christians knowing what and to who they belong and where they don't belong.

We see that here, in this last chapter, in two major parts, from two major Greek words.

First, there's Philadelphia. No, that's not your team, Wayne, sorry.

Philadelphia. And then, koinonia. Well, first, Philadelphia, the word means not a city in Pennsylvania, but brotherly love.

That's what it literally means in Greek. Verse 1 says, let brotherly, we could call it family, love,

Philadelphia, continue. That implies that it's already started, right?

It's already been going on, but like a fire, you need to keep fueling it so it doesn't burn out.

It is the love of one Christian for another, of spiritual siblings, brothers, sisters, for each other. The church is a family of spiritual brothers and sisters.

Now, we should have a family love for each other, then. Even though the individual Christian in the

New Testament is compared to a soldier, the church is never compared to an army. Even though we're told to train like an athlete, the church is more than just, is not compared, say, to an athletic team, as though the only thing that unites us is this one activity.

What the church is compared to is a family, the household of faith.

That's the New Testament term used repeatedly for the church. We're not just, so that means, it's just like members, you know, for your children or your brothers, sisters, you're not just interested in them for this one little thing, you're interested in their whole life.

And so, for us, we're not just interested in you to be a seat filler on Sunday morning, because, you know, we have several seats here we'd like to fill up, and if we fill up all these, we can buy more seats.

No, we're interested in you for more than that. We're not just interested in you to be a giving unit into the offering basket, or just for a helper for our ministry, so we can have more

Jim Jr. and more Jim. Did you know that we don't just pressure members to help with Jim Jr.

or Jim, or to give more to the offering? Sometimes we let them not.

Maybe in some occasions we'd actually encourage them not to take part if they just have too many other responsibilities, particularly at home.

Sometimes, I've intentionally, we've intentionally held back from harping on giving, because we're afraid that some who already give enough will be tempted to give too much.

Did you know that members of this church have mowed the yards of other members when they were away and couldn't do it themselves?

Did you know we have watched their children have help members move? Did you know that?

Did you know on one occasion when we had one member who had been gone from church three weeks in a row and her cell phone was disconnected, we went to her house.

She wasn't there. We were concerned. We knocked on her neighbor's doors asking if she was there and she was okay.

Did you know that? Did you know the members have put in ceramic tiles in the kitchens of other members?

You know, just last Sunday, put in locks in a member's house that was burglarized.

Did you know that? Yeah, burglarized one of our members here. Did you know that members have provided a room and beds for other members when there was a fire in their house and they needed a place to stay?

We've given rides. We've taken the children of members to appointments when their members couldn't do it themselves.

We've gone to recitals and graduations, wept with those who wept and rejoiced with those who rejoiced.

And we don't have an administrator, you know, with an office and a budget who impersonally dispatches employees to go do such things.

It's not a program. It's brotherly love. Don't let anyone tell you that we're just a theology talking shop.

The theology, God's truth from his word, creates the family and the love.

We need to make sure we let it continue. The church is the family to which we belong, and this is one reason

I believe strongly in meaningful church membership. Now, the members are those who have committed to us, who have said,

I belong to you, you belong to me, we belong together. There's a tie that binds us together.

It's brotherly or sisterly sibling love. Now, we might not always feel loving and sweet to each other.

You know, brothers and sisters may sometimes get on each other's nerves like no one else. You know, we have a gym here on Sunday nights.

One of the few times we actually had a real fight between two guys. I had to break it up, try to get between them.

They were so determined to get at each other. I only learned later they were brothers. I thought, oh, that explains it.

They're brothers. Of course they're going to fight. Still can't do it here, but I understand now.

But still, they are bound. Brothers and sisters are bound together. Now, you know, that sounds great in theory.

How does that mean application? What family is not quite sure who belongs in it and who doesn't?

A lot of churches aren't sure who belongs in it and who doesn't. What family is that way? None. Everyone knows in a family where they stand with everyone else, whether they are the mother.

They're the ones, by the way, who today, they get to go to the restaurant they want to go to. It's Mother's Day.

Or a father or son. You know, they know they're a father or son, a sister or a cousin. They know where they are.

And Chinese are even more precise about this. My goodness. With exact terms. Older brother, older sister, younger brother, younger sister.

The word for your grandmother on your father's side is different than the word for your grandmother on your mother's side.

Your father's brother, what we call an uncle, is called something different than your father's sister's husband, what we also call an uncle.

And they have all kinds of different words for different cousins. I don't know how many words they have for different family members.

Everybody has their own little word, precise term. Everybody in the family knows where he or she belongs.

And that's what you do when you take belonging seriously. And that's why we need church meaningful membership.

That you know where you belong. That you're committed to them and they are committed to you.

It's not just coming and going. You know, like a movie theater. I like the show here so I'm going to go there now. No. It's a home that you know where you are.

Because you're family there. Here, he says, verse one, make sure you keep loving that family.

Second, love strangers. Literally, that's the word there in verse two.

Translated hospitality. Means stranger lover. Be a stranger lover.

First, I think he specifically means Christian strangers. Fellow Christians who you don't know yet.

So our family love, which we just talked about, is not insular. We only love those who are in.

We don't care about those who are outside. We're not bent inward, only caring about ourselves. And now in that day, when

Hebrews was written, this was especially important as hotels were few and usually centers of immorality.

Often they served as brothels. So to spare fellow Christians the problems of staying in such places, open your home to them.

Keep a spare room in the bed for a traveling brother or sister and feed them a meal.

And you never know who you might be hosting. Like Abraham, who was sitting by his tent one day, saw three men, and I guarantee you they didn't have one big halo around their head.

He didn't know they were holy or anything. He was just hospitable. Three men walking by, he hurried to offer them dinner and a refreshment, a cool place to sit.

You know, relax for a while. And two of them turned out to be angels. One turned out to be the

Lord himself. I think Christians can have different opinions, maybe even very strict opinions, on the issue of the government's policy on immigration, especially on how we deal with illegal immigrants.

Vote as you think best. What I don't think we can disagree on is how we are going to personally treat the foreigners who come across our path hospitably, kindly, generously.

Let the government do its job. Your job is to love strangers.

Third, love the persecuted. In verse 3, remember those who are in prison.

He means those fellow Christians who are suffering imprisonment for their faith. We need to remember the persecuted church.

That banner there, not only to hide the pool sticks, but to remind you to remember the persecuted church.

So don't have an out -of -sight, because they're in jail, out -of -sight, out -of -mind attitude.

Remember them. Now here, he probably means people from their very church, likely their leaders, who have been hauled off and thrown in jail for what they believe.

I think we're seeing, I do think, as I said before, we're seeing the beginnings of persecution here in this country. I don't know if it will ever get so bad that it leads to imprisonment.

The First Amendment might prevent that. But we need now to feel with those who are imprisoned elsewhere, like Iran, like we were with them.

And if every one of us here suffers because we belong to the Lord, suffers a loss of a job or an account or a fine, a business, a reputation, we're mistreated.

It's in the second half of the verse. We can be mistreated here because of our faith. We need to remember them, to keep them in mind as though, he says, think about them as though it had just happened to you.

Remember them because you're in the body too, he says. In other words, you have stuff, another church member had stuff hauled off.

Well, you do too. Could be you next. You have a business, some of you anyway, that could be bankrupted.

You have bank accounts that can be seized. And so you too could be mistreated.

So sympathize with those who are. Fourth, in verse four, love your spouse.

That's a hard one there, some people think. I mean, okay, I can love these abstract, theoretical people off somewhere else.

It's the real person right in front of me. That gets difficult. I once had a man come to see me and talk about the big problems in the country, you know, the

Supreme Court, the culture of Hollywood, all that. And I got the feeling he was talking about all these big problems far away because he couldn't deal with the small problems he had right in front of him in his own house.

Here, in verse four, we go directly from those who are, you know, so out of sight in prison somewhere, way off, that you're tempted to put them out of mind, then immediately to the one who was so close by, you see him or her every day.

Maybe they have problems giving you problems and you don't really know how to deal with. And so you're tempted to just forget about them.

Remember to love them too. And you do that by honoring marriage. If you're not married, then honor marriage.

Don't undermine anyone else's marriage. Don't have sex with someone you're not married to, even if they also are single because one day they might be married to someone else.

Don't get any funny ideas about a relationship with someone who is married to someone else. Okay, it's out of bounds.

With all this talk here about church as a big family, we're all supposed to be one in the bond of love.

We're supposed to be loving and generous and sweet people sharing stuff. People could get weird ideas that we can not only share a spare bed, but that we could share an inhabited one, share a spouse.

Others will go another way. You know, we're all brothers and sisters. Sibling love, right? So you don't need marriage at all.

You don't marry your brother or sister. And so we'll sell everything we have. We'll live in a big commune like that.

Okay, that's been done. People have tried that. How does the church, the church family, and marriage relate?

How do they mix? Well, they should honor each other. The church family should hold up marriage as something that deserves nurturing.

It's not an unspiritual thing. Marriage for the weak. They can't get by. They've got to get married. They don't have the self -control they've got to get married.

And it's not a distraction from serving the Lord. Three years ago, several of us married people went to an event for real marriage.

I think it was profitable. The church family we belong to should build up the marriages many of us belong to.

In order to fulfill that longing to belong, many people will become involved in sexual relationships. Now, rightly, marriage is supposed to meet that need for sexual satisfaction completely and belonging partially.

Notice the biblical balance in verse 4. Notice what it's assuming. Let marriage be held in honor.

The Bible is not anti -sex. It does not make sex something that's dirty and degraded.

Only carnal people, you weren't able to get up enough self -control to stay out of it, so okay, you've got to have this.

No, indeed, by saying let marriage, in which sex is a part of it, be held in honor, he is saying we honor the proper sexual relationship.

Esteem it. And we esteem it by letting the marriage bed be undefiled.

Undefiled means that there's no contamination. There's nothing there that doesn't belong.

You know, pure water means water in which there's nothing else than H2O. There's all this there.

A pure marriage bed means that there's no sexual relationship of any kind to any degree, including playing with pornography, encouraging fantasies about possible future contaminants.

No. The sexual relationship for the Christian should be purely with the one you are married to.

And in case you're tempted otherwise, there's a threat. God will judge the sexually immoral.

And there the term is a catch -all term in Greek for all sex outside of marriage.

All of it. And the adulterous. In that particular, God is concerned, adamant about.

God invented marriage. It's his thing. He created it. The state doesn't create it.

The government doesn't create it. God created it. And he takes it personally when we destroy it.

So show brotherly, sisterly love by honoring marriage. And if you're in one, be perfectly faithful to that one.

Fifth, continue brotherly love by not loving money.

Loving money and loving other people are not compatible. People love money because money promises to serve them.

To give them what they want. You know, the wife, the husband, the kids, the church, they don't always give me what

I want. The cash, ha ha, that does. So we think. It says that, you know, money tells us we just slap down enough hundred dollar bills.

It will do our bidding. We'll get what we want. It'll give you the car you've always wanted, the fancy vacations, the newest gadgets.

And so you love money. Which really means you love yourself. Which means that you aren't loving others.

Or God. So instead, it says, be content with what you have.

Even if you have very little. Because God is enough. So you don't have to be continually working or missing church to work, missing your children's life to work, just to squeeze out a few more dollars and thinking and hoping that you can finally, if you just work enough, you get one more dollar, it will be enough.

You know, love of money will be constantly telling you what the multimillionaire

John D. Rockefeller said. Was it enough money? You know what it says? You know what he said?

Was it enough money? Just a little more. Be content with the

Lord because he promises at the end of verse 5, I will never leave you or forsake you.

Do you long to belong? Maybe enough money, we think. You know, buy us a seat at the table.

People will feel like they belong to us. They'll open the doors for us. So you chase it. But God says, if you're one of his and his family, then you belong to him.

You'll always belong to him. People love money because they don't really believe that.

They don't trust in God. Even if it says they do on their money. They trust that money will not leave them, that money, they think, will keep them safe.

But money can evaporate because of inflation, can be lost in a bad business deal, overtaxed by the government, be stolen by a burglar, embezzled by an identity thief, be frittered away by an irresponsible family member.

But if you belong to the Lord, you can confidently say in verse 6, the

Lord is my helper. He belongs to me. I belong to him.

I will not fear. What can man do to me? Even if I'm poor.

Six, let brotherly love continue by remembering your leaders. In other words, those brothers in your spiritual family who spoke the word of God to you.

Our spiritual leaders are not our fathers. Okay? That's why we don't call them fathers.

Or our priest. Hebrews has said Jesus is the one priest and he's done all the priestly work we ever need to be done.

But that doesn't mean we have no leaders. That's what many Americans like to conclude now. We're just one big commune and all with the same roles and same responsibilities.

No leaders. Now, God uses some brothers to lead you. Don't be so disconnected from your spiritual family that you forget that.

Now, sure, you think, good inspirational messages or informative

Bible lessons, that's all nice now and then. But you don't see that you really need to have leaders.

What do I need a leader for? Eh, I don't need that. I'm entertained by a good sermon, but I don't need a leader.

I don't need people to consider in my life. Even imitate. Imitate?

Oh, you're a puppet on a string if you do that. You're going to be your own person. Right? That's the

American way. The rugged individualist. The pioneer, venturing forth by himself.

But, you know, even the pioneers usually had leaders, lest they get lost in the mountains somewhere in the middle of, caught in a snowstorm, or wind up in hostile enemy territory.

You need leaders. Remember what they told you about Jesus? Leaders shouldn't be making followers of themselves, but followers of Jesus.

Keep considering what they showed you about Jesus, so that when you're tempted, you're feeling weak, feeling down, the good old days when you were so zealous about the

Lord, you wanted to read the Bible and go to church all the time, you really loved the Lord. Oh, now that seems so far back.

And the leaders who first inspired you then, maybe they're gone. Remember that Jesus isn't.

There's that famous verse there, probably one of the most famous verses in all of Hebrews. Verse 8. Many people tell you, it makes a great poster verse.

People read it all by itself. Jesus Christ, the same, what is it, yesterday, today, and forever. Yeah, look at the context it's in.

Your leaders told you about Him. The leaders are going to die, and maybe you'll forget about them.

Maybe they'll even stumble and be a bad, you know, testimony. But the Jesus they revealed to you,

God used to reveal to you, that Jesus, He doesn't fade away. He doesn't pass away.

He's the same one you were in love with way back. So keep Him in mind first.

Don't, in verse 9, one way you can do that, don't get distracted by strange doctrines.

That's when you're forgetting who that Jesus was. You just go after passing fads, all kinds of things that really aren't so important, that some preacher is making a big deal about, saying you must believe it or you don't really belong.

King James -only -ism is a strange teaching. Using the Bible to support racism, that's strange.

Or homosexuality, that's strange. Many ideas about the end times. They're so precise about what will happen, and when it will happen, and what order, and who

Gog and Magog are, and they're going to be angry at anyone who disagrees with them about who

Gog and Magog are. So much about all that, that they forget the main point, that Jesus is returning.

Those are strange doctrines. People get caught up in, distracted by. The idea that the gospel of grace means that you can live any way you want, no repentance is necessary, and you can still belong to the kingdom of God.

That's strange. Or here at the end of verse 9, which is probably what, this is the issue in front of him right now, that you can't eat this or that, or maybe you must eat this, this sacrificed meat from the temple.

We get to eat it, but you Christians don't. Some today, that you can't drink this and be a

Christian. All those are strange doctrines that people are drawn to.

They're drawn to them because they've forgotten what our first leaders, the same as their first leaders, the apostles, wrote for us.

Finally, seventh, go to Jesus. You want to belong to God's kingdom?

You have a longing to belong? Well, then go to Jesus. Above all, go where Jesus is.

He's outside of this world, this world system, this worldly society.

Outside of respectable society, He's outside. In verse 11, the bodies of the sin offerings were burned outside the camp.

Just so, the Lord Jesus suffered outside, outside the gate of the city.

He was rejected, excluded. He was told he didn't belong as he was being led outside.

And that's where he suffered, as an outcast. And he did that at the end of verse 12. It says to sanctify.

Sanctify means to set apart, make holy, make different from others, make belonging to God.

He suffered to make belonging to God the people, it says. Notice that?

The people, verse 11, to set them apart from the world. The people who belong to God.

In other words, his blood was spilled so that God could have a people who belong to Him.

And he did that outside, where polite society sends people they say don't belong.

Therefore, in verse 13, because Jesus went outside, because He chose not to belong, we should too.

We should bear the reproach, sometimes the scoffing, the rejection, the insult, you're a bigot, you're a this and that, because you believe these things.

Bear the experience of not belonging here.

Young people, you may have to choose sometimes not to go to a party. Even though you're invited, you're welcome, they're going to be superficially friendly to you there, if you know there will be temptations there.

Because that's not where you belong as a Christian. If you want to belong to God, you have to be an outcast from the world because here, in this world, we don't have a lasting city.

We don't have a society that we can depend on, where we just fit in naturally.

We don't. It's not here yet. It's coming. We're in it.

We're in it and we're here, but it's not here. As we saw last week, you know, we're in it.

But it's not fully here yet. Notice verse 14. We don't belong here.

Simple as that. We don't belong here. We're looking for the place where we belong.

And we're not just passively kind of waiting on the place where we belong to come. It says we are seeking it.

It's the endeavor of our life to find that place where we belong.

But we can't make it come. But we still seek it. And one way to seek where we belong, while we're here, where we don't belong, is to praise

God. So let's sing His praises. That's why praise is so important.

It's an important part of what we do. You know, we don't need to offer animal sacrifices. Jesus has finished that.

But we can offer, he calls it here, the sacrifice of praise. The main thing about our worship music is, does it help us praise

God? Not every song has to be theological. It's great sometimes that they are, but it doesn't have to be so theological heavy.

Does it help our hearts praise God, to offer this sacrifice of praise? Our singing and praising isn't just a warm -up act for the preaching, by the way.

It's a really important part of what we do. Praise is what we bring to worship, not blood.

Because Jesus has done all that already. The only thing left then, since it's done, is to praise

Him for it. So let's do that. He says continually, notice that, not just when we feel like it, not just when we're young or new and zealous, praise

God through Jesus all the time. And that also includes at the end of verse 15 a confessing, acknowledging

Jesus' name. Not just when we're singing and we're safe in here, where we belong, we belong here, we're safe, we can praise, but before others outside.

Even if it gets us rejected, if it provokes others to tell us, hey, that, no, that, the name of Jesus, that doesn't belong here.

You know, like city council meetings at work or school. Confess His name while you're seeking the place you belong.

That, from verses 11 to 15, well, I think, my opinion is the pinnacle of this chapter.

Holding up one last time in Hebrews, the Jesus who suffered outside.

Kicked out, rejected, and so let's go out with Him.

And the rest of the chapter then kind of goes back down. Unlike going down a mountain, it's faster than going up.

In verse 16, we're kind of back to where we started in verse 1. You know, Philadelphia.

Now Philadelphia leads us to Cornelia. Cornelia means communion, fellowship, close relationship, sharing, participation, belonging.

In verse 16, we're told don't neglect. Again, it's already started.

We've been doing it. Don't neglect what you've already started, what you used to be eager to do.

Don't let those habits slip. To do good to each other and to share. Have Cornelia.

Paul tells us in Galatians chapter 6, verse 10, as we have our opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

To the spiritual family that we all belong to. Now here, don't get tired and forgetful to keep sharing with them.

Pick yourself up, revive yourself. You know, if you used to remember, you know,

I remember way back volunteering, did this and that for people in the church. Remember sharing?

It's been a while. We'll get back to doing it again. Helping, maybe making sandwiches or playing with the kids of Jim Jr.

Not today, because it's off, but some other time. Offering rides, spare beds, replacing locks, sharing your food, your talents.

That's Cornelia. And how do we share, participate, have belongingness?

Like on the way up to the pinnacle where we go to Jesus outside the city, we first, yes, we share what we have, and then again, in verse 17, back to that theme he touched on in verse 7, we listen to our leaders.

Now verse 17 is probably one of the most difficult verses in the whole

Bible for modern Americans to accept. They would probably hear, rather hear about the verse about dashing infants against rocks than to hear verse 17 in this chapter, okay?

This is just, this is I mean, for modern Americans the red lights go off.

You can't possibly mean what it looks like it means. More interested now in warning against taking this verse too far than we are in what it actually says.

And so many Christians are desperate to so water it down that after they're done with it, it comes out basically to mean nothing, but it does mean something.

It means what it says. Now I believe also, this is the key, verse 17, to understand another hot issue in our day, another misunderstood issue, and that is the role of women in ministry.

You see, when you water down verse 17 and other such passages and they come out meaning nothing, in other words, there's no people in the church that you should especially listen to.

There's no authority. Right? That's what they're doing when they're watering it down so much.

When you do that, and then you come to passages like 1 Corinthians 11 that tells us that women can speak in church, but they should do so with a sign of authority.

Or 1 Timothy chapter 2 that says that women can't teach or be in authority over men.

Then, you know, you're coming at it assuming there's no authority at all in the church, in teaching.

And so you end up with this issue, having to choose between two errors. Either women can't speak at all, because we assume teaching has no authority, and so if women can't be in authority over men, that means they can't speak.

There's no authority for anyone to have, so if you're taking authority from women,

I guess you're saying they can't even talk. I'll be quiet even after the service. We don't hear you chattering.

Or, on the other hand, the other error, which I think is much worse, by the way, this is, not all errors are equally disastrous, this is the worst error, that women can speak just like men, there's no difference, and so you have women pastors and elders.

But if they could only accept verse 17, then they'd see that there are some speakers who are leaders and they have authority.

But not everyone who speaks is a leader. People don't understand the role of women in ministry because they don't understand the role of men in ministry.

Participate in the life of the body by listening to your leaders. And by the way, notice who your leaders are.

In verse 7, they were those who spoke the word of God to you. Here, they are those who keep, present tense, keep, right now, they are keeping watch over your soul.

So they aren't just some guy on the radio or the internet that you like to listen to. Now it's great if you get extra encouragement from faithful people outside.

I encourage all of that, as long as they're reliable, faithful to sound, you can get all the teaching you want out there.

But those are not your leaders. No more than the chef behind the counter in your favorite restaurant is your wife or your husband.

Your leaders are those who are keeping watch. It's a long term, continuous relationship.

People you belong to and they belong to you. Notice at the very end in verse 22 and 24, in other words, greet your leaders.

In other words, they're people you know. People who are among you. They share in your life.

In verse 22, he appeals to them. Notice in verse 22, he urges them, please.

They become dull of hearing. It sounds like they've started to blow off what their leaders, even this author, is saying, eh, they kind of listen, but eh, who cares.

Heard it all already. He's saying he urges them, bear with my word of exhortation.

Listen. Now some people today think you can't possibly have, and I've heard people say this, you can't have brotherly, sisterly, love, church as a family, and have authority and leadership and discipline.

That the two can't mix. Absolutely false. They do.

We have leadership and koinonia together. Oh, but you say, especially if you're looking at me, thinking about me, how can

I obey, submit to them when they're, so, that guy, so imperfect.

You know, God knew that the leaders would be imperfect when he inspired this verse.

God gives to imperfect men authority. Doesn't mean you follow them into sin.

We're not saying that, but God gives to imperfect men authority. Now it's sad that we're not perfect.

It's sadder, especially for you, if you use that as an excuse not to participate in the body.

Instead, listen to them. You know, we're not trying to make your life harder. We're not.

We're trying to make it more joyous, and by listening, you make our life more joyous.

And so we all share joy. Koinonia. And if you don't listen, and you're tempted, and you're caught in sin, do you think it's just you?

You know, we don't care. You think we're shrugging our shoulders, not even paying attention, not even aware that you'll be the only one suffering?

As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 29, who is led into sin? And I do not inwardly burn.

We groan when we try to tell you the truth to spare you.

And you don't listen. It wasn't hard a little over a year ago, fasting for most of the day, when one of our members had fallen.

I didn't feel like eating anyway. What was hard was what that member was doing to herself.

Did I not inwardly burn and groan? And what advantage is it to you to come to church and then not listen?

Participate in the life of the church, in the church, in the city that you're seeking, and is coming by doing good to each other, by changing locks, by listening to leaders, and then finally by prayer.

In verse 18, pray for us, pray for your leaders, pray for each other.

Come on Wednesday nights to pray. Pray for other members every day. Coming near the end of the book, the author really models for us a prayer.

A benediction is a prayer for you. May the God of peace who brought again from the dead our

Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, may He, our Father, equip you.

In other words, give you the ability through the blood of Jesus, that blood that made our relationship, made our belonging to Him possible, may

He give you the ability to do everything good so that you can do

His will. The prayer for you here, you're in this eternal covenant that binds us together.

It's eternal. You will never, if you are one of His, never not belong to Him.

It's an eternal covenant that He's made with you. And for you then, may this

God who now you belong to Him eternally give you everything good here, now, so that you can do

His will. May He work in you what's pleasing to Him. He'll be happy with you.

May you have the grace, grace to you. In that last verse, that's how

Hebrews ends with, grace to you. Have the grace to make you pleasing to Him.

With Philadelphia, brotherly love, and Cornelia, participating together through Jesus Christ.

And to Him, speaking of Jesus Christ, the one that we celebrated in that magnificent beginning in chapter 1, as the radiance of God's glory, the one who went outside, not belonging to the world, the great shepherd who will bring every one of us sheep to the place where we belong.

Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.